2011-02-25

Summoners!
If you're interested in an inside look at what all the movers and shakers from all across Valoran have been up to over the past two weeks, look no further than the Journal of Justice. The most intrepid journalists from all across the continent have been hard at work to bring you the latest scoop. From the highest towers of Demacia to the deepest dungeons of Noxus, the Journal of Justice has everything you need to keep yourself apprised of the goings on in the world of Runeterra.
In this issue of the Journal of Justice:

2011-02-23

Since the last patch we all know that Riot has changed the XP & IP rates users get when playing games. The rates are now time based which means the longer you play - the more you get and vice versa.
They also changed the way custom games worked. Before the update one could play a maximum of 6 games per day that gave IPs. The new system works on time - you get 180 minutes of custom game time per 24 hours. That means that we're able to farm much more IPs now. The downside is that you'll get merely 40 points per game. The total daily IP is still higher than before (Riot also removed the 11minute cap).
I'm going to present you the fastest ways to farm Influence Points here and now:

Method #1

Champion: Tristana
Finishing Time: ~10 minutes
Difficulty: easy

Farming IP with Tristana is easy because of several reasons: she's ranged (get's more range with levels), she has an passive AoE skill to kill minions fast, she can attack very fast and she's free!To get Tristana and a skin for free, follow this link:US / EU client

And here's how you do it.
Masteries: 21/0/8
Summoner Spells: Teleport, Fortify (gives +9dmg to minions)
Spell Priority: start with E, then Q>E, no ultimate
Pick Soraka as enemy bot

Start with a Dagger for more attack speed and go mid. Push. The towers always have priority when it's save to attack them.
Should you die buy more attack speed and run back mid. Once you have 1550+ gold bluepill back to base and upgrade your dagger to a Sword of the Divine. Buy a green potion and/or other AS items when you have more gold.

Teleport back to mid and keep pushing until you destroy the Nexus.

Method #2

Champion: Master Yi
Finishing Time: ~ 8 minutes
Difficulty: medium

Yi is the fastest champion for IP farming. He gets excellent damage with hisWuju Style, has a chance to insta-kill minions with Alpha Strike and gets a nice AS boost with Highlander. In addition he costs only 450 IP to unlock.

Skill Priority: start with E, then R>E>QSame strategy as with Tristana. Just be more careful with towers since Yi is a melee champion. Use Wuju Style and Highlander to push.

Method #3

Champion: Twisted Fate
Finishing Time: ~10 minutes
Difficulty: hard

Farming with TF isn't exactly "hard" but harder than with Tristana or Yi. It's harder because Pick a Card requires some skill to use precisely. TF is a good hero choice because 1.) he's ranged 2.) Stacked Deck gives him AS and cooldown reduction and 3.) he's a fast minion/tower killer with PaC
Twisted Fate costs 1350 IP to unlock.

Skill Priority: E>W, get rank 1 of your ultimate when reach lvl 6Same strategies as before.If you want you can bring a different Summoner Spell than Teleport with you and use your ultimate as replacement. Use blue PaC for towers and red cards for minions.

That's it. These are the 3 fastest ways to farm IPs I know. Ofc some people could say: why would I wanna play Tristana or Twisted Fate when Yi is the fastest? My answer would be: to bring some variety into IP farming. Sure Yi is the fastest but playing Yi over and over gets boring faster than you think.I hope some of you find this guide useful and will try it out ingame someday. If you desperately need more Influence Points, farming is still th best way to get them.

2011-02-21

Who: The badass prince of Demacia. He will: Challenge opponents to one-on-one fights, hurl flags through chests.Release: March 1"Everything he does should bleed epic."

This champion image and release date were leaked to the web from the March 2011 issue of PC Gamer.
Personally I can't wait for his release since I love playing Xin Zhao and Garen who also come from Demacia. Based on his description it sounds like we will get another fighter/assassin class. I just hope he won't be a carry, the game has already enough of these guys.

Later this day I will also post this week champion rotation , so stay tuned.

EDIT:
Still no update on the new champion rotation. Is the Riot staff still busy playing Marvel vs Capcom 3? I wouldn't blame them, the game is awesome :-)
I'll post this week's rotation probably tomorrow then. Over and out ~

2011-02-19

I've had a few requests to post some tips and tricks for beginners so that new players won't get slaughtered when starting with LoL. But don't worry, even if you know next to nothing about League of Legends, it's unlikely that will happen. The best way to improve your game is to learn by doing. For people who still need a little more, I decided to post some basics.
Don't get demotivated and remember: even the best players were noobs once ;-)

1. Teamplay > Individual Efforts
If you learn one thing, learn that all members on your team have to work as a team and communicate their motives. Work as a unit and things will come much easier. The most skilled players can lose if their team doesn't coordinate, and the least skilled players can win if their team coordinates. Ping the minimap when you want to gank (kill) someone, when you see one of the enemy champions alone and ready to kill, when you want to get somebody's attention about an empty lane

2. Know Your Champion's Role
There are different types of champions in this game: Support, Assassin/Ganker, Carry, and Pusher. How they achieve these things differs from one champion to the next, but these are the most fundamental archetypes that all the champions fit into (in varying degrees, of course), with some being better at one thing than another or some fitting into multiple roles. Learn these roles and play to them. Generally you'll want to have at least one of each in your team, but it isn't impossible to win otherwise.

Ganker/Assassin - You'll spend most of your time hunting and killing enemy champions.Carry - You'll generally be weaker in the early game, but late game your champion shines with the right item choices.Pusher - You have skills that make it easier for you to either take down towers or kill many minions at once.Support - You support other heroes by healing them, giving them passive auras, or helping them achieve their class roles in one way or another.

3. ALWAYS Watch The MinimapThe worst thing you can do for your team is die. It gives the opposing team money and experience that can quickly snowball into a serious advantage for them. Thus, by default the worst thing that you can do is to let enemy champions out of your sight because they will pop up somewhere and quickly overrun your single champion and killing them. When you notice that the enemy champion in the lane you were in is missing, call out "missing <champion name>" or something similar so that other people are also aware of the situation. This goes back to working as a team and communicating relevant information.

4. Don't Stop Leveling
Another mistake new players make is not taking advantage of empty lanes full of juicy minions (EXP and GOLD!). I've seen many games in League of Legends won simply because of one or two champions that were allowed to farm minions in a lane without any competition or threat. This is a big mistake that can be remedied by not allowing any lanes to remain empty for very long (sometimes it's necessary so that you can gank, kill neutral minions like the dragon or Baron, or go back to base to heal and buy items). Don't have your team all go into the same lane because experience from minions is shared. A tip that ties into this one is to always go for last hits on minions so that you earn as much gold as possible (another reason the neutral creeps are good!).
Don't stop leveling and earning gold!

5. Focus On Your Champion's Strengths
If you're playing as Ryze, you know that his strength is in his nukes and his root and he has the archetype of ganker. You'll know that something like lifesteal, armor, or hit points aren't exactly his forté. You should stack his ability power to make his nukes stronger so that you can gank other champs much easier. If you build him with armor and attack speed, for example, you'll just be an average nuker with a fast attack speed. Not very scary. That isn't to say that you should ignore other item stats completely, but that you should definitely focus on one or two things that play to your champion's strengths. Learn your champion's strengths, focus them, and own some face!

6. Know Your Items
As Drastone said below, it is important to know which items are good for the situation that you find yourself in. Going against a team composed of close-range physical damage? Try a Sunfire Cape. Lots of mages? How about Wit's End, or Banshee's Veil? Also something that doesn't get across to many people is that an item property with "UNIQUE: <item> does X" means that you don't get any additional benefit from stacking that item. Generally speaking, don't ever take two of the same items with UNIQUE.
Know your items. This comes with practice, more than anything, but the League of Legends website was recently updated with a slick item list that you can browse at any time. If you notice someone absolutely dominating the game, sometimes a good idea is to look at the items they're using and learn from them, also.

Credist for this guide go to Bloodba7h from the official LoL forums. Thanks!

2011-02-18

It might be a little late to post the video for the new champion Maokai but hey, better later than never!
I already played him a couple of times myself, and I have to say: he's AWESOME!
Well worth spending 6300 IPs. Especially because he's a tank, and Riot Games hasn't released a tank class for quite some while now.

2011-02-17

Sap Magic (passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, Maokai's next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing him for a percentage of his maximum HP.

Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward, damaging and slowing his enemies.

Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.

Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground, warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.

Vengeful Maelstrom (ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.